DEVELOPMENT BUILD — NOT FOR PUBLIC USE. CONTRIBUTE ON GITHUB.
03 — ARTWORK
PALETTE
HOVER OR TAP A SWATCH FOR NAME, SHARE AND HEX. SAMPLED FROM THE IMAGE — INDICATIVE, NOT A PIGMENT ANALYSIS.
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
This important commode, produced by David Roentgen, as well as another example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, both have an illustrious provenanceThe origins of an art work; the history of a work's ownership since its creation. The study of a work's provenance is important in establishing authenticity.. Their histories may have begun in the royal apartments of Louis XVI at Versailles.
The two commodes are related closely to each other and to the latter's nearly identical counterpart at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. All three pieces are so-called commodes à vantaux, which means they have three doors concealing interior drawers; however, they all include a shelf compartment, rather than drawers, behind the central door, which transforms the type into a combination of the commode à vantaux and a variation called commode en bas d'armoire. The sides and the three front door panels are decorated with marquetry.
Januarius Zick, who frequently worked for David Roentgen, certainly designed the marquetry scenes on the front of the commodes as well as the ones on the sides, and undoubtedly Roentgen's engraver Elie Gervais produced the line drawings for the marquetry cutters to work from.
@online{wga-r007307b299c8bc,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Commode à vantaux by ZICK, Januarius},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-11},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/zick-januarius-rea1a5ea7e4bfb0/commode--vantaux-r007307b299c8bc},
urldate = {2026-09-11},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-11. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
